Interpretive Summary: Two forces are converging that will jointly challenge researchers to design programs that ensure our crop production systems meet the world’s food demand. Climate change will potentially reduce productivity while a global population increase will require more food. If productivity is not increased in the context of changing climatic conditions, food insecurity may foster major economic and political uncertainty. Given the importance of grain legumes in general, and common bean specifically, a workshop entitled “Improving Tolerance of Common Bean to Abiotic Stresses” was held with the goal of developing an interdisciplinary research agenda designed to take advantage of modern crop improvement approaches. Features of the program include a multinational effort to evaluate the major international common bean collections and genetic populations. This effort will emphasize the response of below ground (root) and above ground (shoot) traits to individual and combined stress conditions. These populations would also be analyzed genetically with molecular markers using the newly developed SNP marker system. Genetic evaluation, using association analysis, of the collections would identify key genes associated with the response to stress conditions. Additional genetic analysis, through quantitative QTL analysis, would act as a confirmation experiment for the association analysis. The upcoming release of the genome sequence of common bean would be leveraged through the application of these genetic analyses. The genome sequence will also enable studies on the expression of the complete complement of common bean genes, thus allowing for the study of specific stress responses. This collective knowledge would inform the selection of parental lines to improve the efficiency of common bean improvement programs.

Technical Abstract:
Two forces are converging that will jointly challenge researchers to design programs that ensure our crop production systems meet the world’s food demand. Climate change will potentially reduce productivity while a global population increase will require more food. If productivity is not increased in the context of changing climatic conditions, food insecurity may foster major economic and political uncertainty. Given the importance of grain legumes in general, and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) specifically, a workshop entitled “Improving Tolerance of Common Bean to Abiotic Stresses” was held with the goal of developing an interdisciplinary research agenda designed to take advantage of modern genotyping and breeding approaches that are coupled with large scale phenotyping efforts to improve common bean. Features of the program include a multinational phenotyping effort to evaluate the major common bean core germplasm collections and appropriate segregating genetic populations. The phenotyping will emphasize the response of root and shoot traits to individual and combined stress conditions. These populations would also be genotyped using the newly emerging high density SNP marker arrays. Association analysis of the core collections would identify key loci associated with the response to the stress conditions. Companion bi-parental QTL experiments would act as confirmation experiments for the association analysis. The upcoming release of the genome sequence of common bean would be leveraged by utilizing population genomic approaches to discover genomic regions that differentiate stress responsive and non-responsive genotypes. The genome sequence will also enable global gene expression studies that will highlight specific molecular-based stress responses. This collective knowledge would inform the selection of parental lines to improve the efficiency of common bean improvement programs.